The startups were eagerly looking forward to the Union Budget and most of them were feeling positive post the Budget presentation.
“The Union Budget 2023 is forward-thinking and has a positive tone. The budget is pro-MSMEs and startups, especially knowing India is home to the third largest startup companies in the world.” said Sekar Udayamurthy, CEO and Co-founder, Jidoka Technologies. “The introduction of Entity DigiLocker providing online security to all organizations is a much-needed one, in these times of growing cybercrimes. The National Data Governance Policy will benefit start-ups in a big way,” he added.
Added Priyanka Wadhwa, Co-Owner, Kapila Krishi Udyog Limited & Co founder, CommsCredible, “With the finance minister announcing the launch of an agriculture accelerator fund for young entrepreneurs, the agritech industry and startups will get a major boost in growth. Agro companies that are decades old will see increased productivity through the use of new-age technologies.
Building a digital public infrastructure will also offer a host of farmer centric solutions which will assist farmers in improving their farm output as well as income. This will ultimately lead to economic empowerment, especially of rural women. Moreover, digitization of agriculture is also in line with the government’s objective of financial inclusion and creating an Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
“In the past technology and farming were viewed as independent silos. The 2023 budget, for the first time , plans to converge and marry contemporary technologies with farming, to provide cost effective solutions to the farmer, through initiatives like setting up of The Agriculture Accelerator Fund and research labs. We as an Ag-Tech robotics start-up are thrilled with these steps of the government and commend the government for taking such bold steps. All in all, we not only welcome budget 2022 but appreciate it as well.” Jaisimha Rao, Founder & CEO, TartanSense, Agtech Robotics Start-up is thrilled with these steps of the government and commend the government for taking such bold steps.
“India is emerging as a global startup hub, witnessing steady growth in emerging tech and digital companies. The Union Budget ’23 will pave the way for new opportunities across diverse sectors. With a special focus on data and AI, concrete efforts can be made to grow the ecosystem and materialise the vision of a $5 trillion economy by leveraging the power of technology. The initiatives taken by the government over the last few years have been pivotal in shaping the automotive sector, with tax reforms being directed towards green energy and mobility.” Says Anup Patil, Co-founder and CEO, Intangles.
“In the budget 2023-24, we are happy to see a significant inclination towards start-ups and skill development. The government is providing advantage to the start-ups by offering tax benefits by extending until March 31, 2024. This year we also see the demand for workers with digital skills is increasing in a wide range of industries.
We are delighted to see that the government has focussed on developing hundred labs applications using 5G services that will be set up in engineering institutes. To make this more efficient, it is important to train and upskill workers, learners and educators and this step will encourage employment.
As technology in education continues to advance and becomes more relevant, we anticipated that the government would bring an approach that is more substantial in the education / edtech sector.” comments Nihar Sripad Madkaiker, Co- Founder iXR Labs.
Partha Patnaik, Global Head of Human Resources at Prolifics, opines,“The announcement of opening up three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI), at top educational institutions, addresses the need for AI led skill-development, which is crucial for a future-ready India and will provide a further boost to the already growing tech talent pool of the country. This would encourage businesses to invest in core R&D on AI and Robotics, unlocking India’s technological potential and accelerating our Prime Minister’s ambitious goal of a $5 trillion GDP by FY2025.”
Girish Singhania, CEO, EduBridge, is ectstatic. “By relaxing the norms on educational loans and revoking the importance of skilling, the Pradhan Mantri Kushal Yoga Fund 0.4, comes with a renewed policy encouraging learners to fulfill their skilling ambition. International Central Unified Skill India Program gives the skilling impetus an international flavor that will encourage quality skilling initiatives across sectors. The emergence of three AI Excellence Centres has been set up in prominent universities to enhance the educational experience and research of other areas of development. The government has made a future-forward move by inducting AI into the academic environment.”
“It is encouraging to see the government focus on building a digitally-driven nation in the Union Budget. By expanding innovative services in the fintech space, along with announcing the vision of Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India, we have a lot to look forward. Though not explicitly highlighted in the Budget, we can also expect to see the cybersecurity landscape evolve and benefit from increased use of AI in operations, products, and services. In addition, the government’s relief measures for startups in areas of tax benefits and setting off losses comes as a welcome move, and will go a long way in encouraging the Indian startup ecosystem to continue to innovate.” Said Manish Mimani, Founder & CEO, Protectt.ai.
Mainak Sarkar, Co-founder & CEO, Explorex comments, “The Union Budget 2023, is a well-balanced and growth focused effort by the Government of India to ensure greater emphasis on various sectors such as social sector schemes, infrastructure creation, bringing in a great deal of relief to the middle class. It will assist India’s economy in moving closer to the goal of reaching $5 trillion in GDP by 2025–2026 and growing at 7% in the current year. The allocation of funds to bolster the growth of start-ups is a noteworthy decision undertaken in the 2023 budget.
The introduction of the National Data Governance Policy to unleash innovation by start-ups in the country will prove beneficial to many new age start-ups. Further, the government digital certificate depository Digilocker services for the MSMEs and fintech sector will hasten the germination of more innovative fintech services and further allow fintech solutions in India to function smoothly using India’s digital public infrastructure, including Aadhaar, PM Jandhan Yojna, video KYC, India Stack, and UPI.”
Amit D Mishra, CEO & Founder, iMocha feels “The Union Government’s budget has rightly identified the need to ramp up skill development and upskilling among youth to make them job ready for the future. Announcements such as setting up of 3 AI Centers of Excellence to train youth on AI skills, and the decision to setup a unified Skill India Digital platform with focus on Coding, AI, IoT and Robotics related skills is going to be the game changer for Indian SaaS and technology industry. Further, 30 Skill India International Centers will also be setup across states, and that will ensure that there is a uniformity of quality talent in all the states.
Sajeev Nair, Founder & Chairman,Vieroots Wellness Solutions feels “The Budget has set the stage for a new-age tech-driven revolution in the rapidly growing health and wellness sector of the country. The proposal to develop centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence will enhance wellness interventions and service delivery in a more digital tech-driven ecosystem. The enhanced application of artificial intelligence will boost the scalability of service outreach of the wellness industry. Moreover, the enhanced focus on types of ‘Shree Anna’ through the development of Indian Institute of Millet Research will have a value-accretive impact in the wellness value chain in terms of investment and consumption.”
“The union budget is growth focused, a welcome announcement that liberally provides impetus to digital India. The government’s strides in advancing public and private digital services are a testimony to the rising global profile of the Indian Technology industry. The Indian government has recorded a phenomenal improvement in the Taxpayers Services owing to their digital adoption, where the average processing period has been reduced drastically in the past few years.
Furthermore, the 3 CoE’s for AI and the 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services will drive digitization and reignite employment potential in the tech ecosystem. Such measures demonstrate the multiplier impact of tech on India’s strides onwards. Yet another stimulus was provided for E-Courts, a novel initiative undertaken to transform the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts. A digitally driven government will expedite a digitally driven India” adds Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO, Quixy.
Says Prem Kumar Vislawath, Co-founder, Marut Drones, “The Union Budget 2023 has laid focus on infrastructure spending, meeting its climate change commitments, agricultural, technology, farmers and startups, amongst others. With the announcement of “Agricultural Accelerator Fund” and focus on bringing technology to agriculture it will promote agricultural startups in the country and benefit the drone industry that is working on making agriculture more sustainable, cost effective, efficient and increase the yield for the farmers. We really hope this fund will be beneficial to us like the Drone Shakthi Initiative which was rolled out during budget 2022.”
Vijender Reddy Muthyala, Co-founder and CEO of DrinkPrime says “While we applaud the government for making drinking water more accessible through initiatives like the Jal Jeevan Mission-Har Ghar Jal, we believe it is critical to make safe drinking water more affordable. Lowering or eliminating GST on water purifiers, as consumer durable, will help treat them as an essential service required by all Indians. It will encourage people to invest in their health while helping mission oriented brands like DrinkPrime provide clean, safe and healthy drinking water to everyone.
Lake rejuvenation and ground water regeneration is the need of the hour. There are several NGOs and startups that would benefit greatly if the government would sanction some budget for the same or launch initiatives that serve the purpose.”
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